Teachers and teaching assistants at Ysgol Heol Goffa are currently required to provide life saving and urgent medical care to pupils because there is no nurse permanently based on site. Although staff have received training, campaigners argue they are not fully qualified to treat children with life threatening and complex medical needs.
Parents Voice Safety Concerns
Hannah Coles, a parent at the school, said she fears for her son’s safety on a daily basis.
“I fear not just for the life of my son, but for those of my friends’ children every day.
“Parents should not have to have such awful anxiety because they send their children to school.”
Ms Coles said many parents were shocked to learn there was no full time nurse on site.
“It came as a complete shock. We all assumed the nurse who calls in from time to time was full time and based in school. That is what we need and are demanding from the Hywel Dda University Health Board.”
In a letter to the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Ms Coles, who is herself a qualified nurse, outlined her son’s medical needs.
“My son is tube fed and requires rescue medication for dystonia. He is life limited and is medically complex. Every day I send him to school I put enormous trust in the systems meant to keep him safe.
“I want to sincerely thank Councillor Shaun Greaney for bringing this issue to your attention. Many of us as parents feel frightened and unheard, and we are grateful that someone has spoken up on behalf of our children.
“The staff at the school are compassionate, dedicated and do their absolute best. I cannot praise them highly enough. But they are not nurses. They are not medically qualified to deal with complex and potentially life threatening emergencies.”
School and Political Leaders Raise the Issue
Headteacher Ceri Hopkins said she has been requesting a full time nurse on site for five years.
“The staff are not happy to be dealing with emergencies that could jeopardise the children. They do their best at all times, and will do whatever is required, but school staff should be teaching, not nursing.”
Llanelli Town councillor Shaun Greaney, who represents the Lliedi ward where the school is located, has written to the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Rocio Cifuentes, asking her to intervene.
He stated that more than a dozen children at the school have life limiting or severely complex medical conditions and that the situation requires urgent attention.
In his correspondence, Councillor Greaney said:
“What alarms and angers me is that these children could be condemned to an early death.
“That is why I have written to the Commissioner, Rocio Cifuentes, urging her to bring much needed pressure on Hywel Dda University Health Board to employ a full time nurse at the school without delay.”
He added that parents feel fortunate no child has died to date and warned that, should a preventable tragedy occur, responsibility would lie with the relevant authorities.
Calls for Government Action
Llanelli MS Lee Waters has also written to the Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynn Neagle, stating that there had been limited senior engagement until recently.
He has requested her support in raising the matter with Welsh Government officials and ensuring steps are taken to provide the school with the clinical support its pupils require.
Mr Waters has additionally contacted Dr Neil Wooding, chair of Hywel Dda University Health Board, expressing concern that Carmarthenshire County Council has been raising the absence of a full time on site nurse with the health board for several years.
He described the situation as one that warrants urgent attention and decisive action.
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